Last week we learned how we are made for work – when God created (his work) the world and us, we were meant to engage in work with him. But it didn’t take long for humans to rebel against God and his plan for us, and now everything is not as it should be…including work.

We went off the metaphorical train tracks we described last week – God had given us a good context, direction and plan for life, but we decided to strike out for ourselves. We are now missing the context for our lives, and life is no longer integrated.

This is what happened after that rebellion from God, in Genesis 3:17-19

And to Adam he said, …cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

God was stating the natural consequence of humanity’s departure from him and his care – life will now be painful labour. It can take everything out of you – if you have ever tried to start something new, grow food, win a game, or lead people well, you know this is true. Things are never as easy as they should or could be. Something is broken in us.

We can also see this in our frustration with the little things. Things that should be easy can be really hard.

What followed is that humans clothed themselves in an act of self-protection, which we also see in them is trust and anger we regularly have for other people, especially those we work with.

The humans also started to blame each other, the rest of creation, and God. Sound like your workplace?

So how does work end up being broken today?

At one extreme, we can live for work. We can be driven by a goal, but the problem is those goals are always fleeting – the goal itself never lives up to its hype. We are always finding we arrive somewhere, only to be driven ahead by something more, or something better. The product never matches what was in your head.

Or work becomes pointless, running after something with no real value, simply because it’s the “logical” next step in a career path.

Or work becomes selfish, all about becoming famous, wealthy, or powerful, rather than producing or generating a good for society. We can start to break rules, hide things, or violate some ethics because we are so driven.

We always need to come back to the question of why – why am I working? Why has God put me here? Given me these resources, these skills, this power, this place?

Question: Why do you work? Whatever effort you exert – why do you do it?

Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest

Ryan Sim - August 24, 2015

Monday - A New Idea - Finding Rest

Work and Rest

It can be very hard to find rest in our world. Between a Blackberry, kids, the home phone and social media, it can be hard to focus on anything, much less rest. One study found that people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email. We always wonder what we’re missing, what we should be doing, even when we’re supposed to be resting. With technology, we don’t have to suppress that – we can always know, we can always be available. People say it’s harder and harder to unplug. Even as I wrote this, I found myself turning to all kinds of distractions – it’s always when I try to focus on writing that I decide some amazing new change needs to be made to the app or social media. This makes it hard to work and rest – I’m constantly blending the two, and doing neither well as a result. For this year’s vacation, I committed to turning my smartphone off, and only checking in once a day to make sure things are running smoothly with Redeem the Commute. I’ll have to physically make sure my phone isn’t around, because I know I’ll be tempted otherwise. But that isn’t a foolproof formula – I can always go get my smartphone if I get too curious. Find rest can’t just be about strategies – because our problem is inside us. There is something inside me that is still wanting to check email, check the news, etc. We’ll explore what that is, and what to replace it with this week. Question: How do you “unplug” and rest? What strategies do you use?

From Series: "Work and Rest"

Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.

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